Cha Ca La Vong restaurant in the Old Quarter of Hanoi is eulogized by Alastair Hendy in his wonderful book Food and Travels: Asia. Indeed Alastair has included a delicious recipe for the eponymous fish, noodle and dill dish which is an honor to this eating house.
Other food and travel writers have given this restaurant some attention and a few printed features are now pasted messily on the wall. Diners cook and assemble their own meal at the table. The ingredients: a bowl of cooked thin rice noodles, chopped dill, a selection of herbs, a bowl of chopped fresh chilli and some pungent fermented fish paste. Finally a small cast iron pan, set over an electric table cooker reheats precooked fish. This is a great idea for a dish but the owners have let the rot of complacency set in. When meals in this city cost an average of $4 - Cha Ca La Vong charge an extortionate $9 per dish. The restaurant is dirty and scruffy and an avaricious Madame presides like a sinister spirit waiting for the money to hit the till. Give it a miss. There are now better places to eat in the Hanoi.
Cha Ca La Vong Restaurant, Cha Ca Street, Old Quarter, Hanoi.